Barron's has been bearish on Facebook since before it went public in May. In a cover story ("Still Too Pricey," Sept. 24), we argued that the shares could fall to $15. If revenue and profit growth falter, that scenario could play out. The stock is down about 4% since the article ran.

Facebook netted 12 cents a share in the third quarter, a penny above the consensus estimate. Revenue, at $1.26 billion, slightly exceeded expectations, while sales were 32% above the level a year earlier. This prompted some analysts to boost their 2012 profit projections, with the consensus rising two cents, to 51 cents a share.

Analysts like Facebook's aggressive attempt to generate ad revenue from its growing base of mobile users. Mobile accounted for 14% of third-quarter ad revenue, up from zero early this year. "We're just getting started with our mobile-product development and monetization," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company's earnings conference call.

While mobile-ad growth is up sharply from a low base, desktop ad-revenue gains have slowed compared with a year earlier. Such revenue was up 17% in the third quarter, versus 26% in the second. But desktop ad revenue slid an estimated 5% in the third quarter, relative to the second quarter.

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield wrote that the Facebook conference call should have been called the "Facebook Monetization Handbook" as management noted many initiatives to wring revenue from its user base of one billion. He contrasts that with Facebook's high-minded emphasis on the user experience in its initial public offering prospectus. The pressures of a weak stock price—which have hurt employees' morale and pocketbooks—seem to be changing Facebook's priorities.

"It's hard not to feel like the user experience has taken a 'back seat' to monetization," Greenfield wrote. Facebook is ramping up "sponsored stories"—a.k.a. ads, in users' mobile news feeds. That may turn off those who view these as annoying, not informative. "While a compromised user experience is likely to have little impact on near-term earnings, it is critical to long-term engagement and the long-term viability of the platform," Greenfield wrote. Mobile users also may not spend as much time using Facebook because their experience tends to involve quick visits to Websites, not the more prolonged engagement of the desktop.

When our story ran, Smith was celebrating reaching his goal of generating 10% of revenue from new products—137 introduced in the previous two years alone. This had reduced the company's reliance on mortgage-applicant credit-rating services, a big plus during the housing slump.

share—75 cents, excluding acquisition charges—on $544 million in revenue, versus 54 cents a share on $490 million a year earlier.

But Equifax now looks a little expensive. It's fetching about 16 times its expected 2012 earnings, well above its 10-year median of 15 times. In fact, its forward price/earnings ratio is roughly 1.2 times the S&P's, versus a historical median of 0.99. And one of Equifax's longtime fans, Jensen Investment Management, has cut its holdings by about 20% over the past four quarters.

In an interview after a Thursday conference call, Equifax CEO Smith said: "We believe that there's a lot more room to run in our stock, because of our ability to innovate and execute at extremely high levels even in an anemic environment. When the environment turns around—and it will turn around—it will only further propel our top line." Some analysts agree; Andrew Jeffrey of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey has a Buy recommendation and a $58 price target on Equifax.

But if you believe we're in for tougher times, the wise course would be to stick with Equifax, but take some profits.

Evergrande looks cheap—at just 4.4 times reported earnings for the 12 months through June. But investors should continue to steer clear of the stock, because Evergrande plumps profits through accounting practices favored by most Hong Kong-listed developers.

Half the pretax profit for its first six months of 2012 came from boosting the estimated fair value of its properties and capitalizing 99% of interest expenses. Such accruals, while legal, obscure towering negative free-cash flow as developers press their bets that China's residential real-estate bubble will continue.

Housing prices have held steady this year in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but have weakened in the secondary cities where Evergrande builds 97% of it properties.

The company, whose stock-market value is US$6.5 billion and which has issued $9 billion worth of bonds, has stayed about on track to hit its targeted revenue for 2012, but only by sacrificing price and profits. Its gross margin for 2012's first half slid below 29%, from above 33% a year earlier. And its persistent purchases of raw land have driven debt above 100% of equity (even after netting out cash). For 2012's first nine months, its reported contract sales of residences were down 7% from the corresponding 2011 period's, despite 9% lower average selling prices.

Based on all this, further discounts seem in store for Evergrande's apartments…and its securities.